Choose-your-own whatever is clearly gimmicky, but it didn’t really feel like it. Perhaps because NPH is so insanely likable, I just thought, okay, yeah, I’ll go along with this. And it IS interesting — don’t you want to know what it’s like to hang out at Elton John’s house? Well, even if you don’t, I promise you you’ll find it entertaining. This crazy thing is written in the second person, which is fun, and for the most part you’re not really choosing your own adventure, […]
Slower than molasses in January
Okay, so that’s an exaggeration, but my grandmother used to say that and it’s nice to have an excuse to throw it in there. My problem with this book was that I wanted to be blown away by it, and while I DID like it, I only liked it as a friend. Barbara Vine is such a good writer, and that’s what made me even finish it, and while Gerald’s story is compelling and tragic, and Ursula’s too, I found it often tedious and wondered what […]
Fun, but slightly less so than the first one
I read the first book in this series, The Name of the Star, and liked it more than I expected to. This one’s pretty good, too, though it didn’t seem as smooth. Rory has gone back to her London boarding school after her big old ghostly encounter in the last book, and more spooky shit happens. There’s a creepy cult, Rory is pretty powerful, we get a little more in terms of back story and current details of the Shades, and once again the ending seems […]
Far-reaching, but not OVERreaching
So hey! I really liked this. There probably isn’t much more to be said as this has been reviewed here many times by much more articulate people. That being said (as they say): First, something in Lollygagger’s review struck me: “What I think is interesting is that, for me, I didn’t get absorbed into the world. I was always aware of the fact that I was reading a book…” I felt that way, too, and have felt similarly about books in the past, but then, […]